A majority of the City Council held a press conference today explaining their recent votes of no confidence in City Attorney Sarah O'Reilly-Evans and to withhold pay from two city employees.
Council members Margaret Barrett-Simon, Leslie McLemore, Marshand Crisler and Council President Ben Allen said they voted to withhold payments to Charles Melvin and Todd Chandler because they fear those payments could be illegal.
Last month, the council voted down Todd Chandler as fire chief, 20 months after Mayor Frank Melton named him interim fire chief. The council also rejected Charles Melvin as director of the Department of Parks and Recreation. Melvin served under Melton at the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, and he supervised the mayor's youth initiative, including the Wood Street lawn crew.
After City Council rejected Chandler, Melton installed him as assistant fire chief and granted him authority over the fire department. After the council rejected Melvin, Melton made him an assistant chief administration officer in charge of parks and recreation.
Allen explained that the four members voted to hold the paychecks on advice from their
attorneys, who had advised them that the payments might be illegal.
"(Our attorneys) are afraid that we, as approvers of the claims docket, may be getting into something that may not be easy to explain our way out of, even if it's done completely in ignorance," Allen said at a press conference addressing the line-item pay freeze.
Allen quoted from state statute 21-39-9, which states that spending city funds not authorized by "an order entered upon the (council) minutes" is a misdemeanor, punishable by $500 and jail time or both. Government officials who violate the law can be "immediately and automatically ... removed from office" upon conviction.
Crisler, a member of law enforcement, said good intentions are not a defense in court.
"I've heard this notion several times, 'Well, I didn't know, and I made a mistake.' Let me tell you something: This is the state of Mississippi, and it doesn't understand anything about 'I didn't know.' Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. There's a lot of people sitting in jail right now because they were ignorant," Crisler said.
The council majority expressed concern that Melvin's salary, for instance, might be pulled from parks and recreation, though he now serves in another department.
"We don't know for sure if they've (illegally transferred money)," Crisler said. "We don't know, and that's the concern. If they reached over into parks and recreation, took (Melvin's) salary and put it over in the CAO's office, then that's illegal, because it didn't come before us. We need to make a public statmeent that we're not in support of what's going on, because somebody's going to start asking questions real soon, and we need to be on record saying we had concerns."
Crisler went on to clarify that City Council does not yet know whether such transfers have taken place, but Barrett-Simon said that with budget revisions so many months overdue, there was no way to know how funds might have been moved.
"I shudder to think what might happen if (State Auditor) Phil Bryant walked in here today," Barrett-Simon said. "I shudder to think what might happen."
McLemore said that it is unprecedented to be so late into the fiscal year without budget revisions. The administration has already admitted that its expenditures will exceed the budget City Council authorized by $3.9 million.
"I've been on the council since 1999, and we've never been this late in the fiscal year where we have not had at least one budget revision. ... They keep putting us off. The last conversation we had about the budget was that skeletal outline on expenditures, and that was it," McLemore said, referring to a three-page administration document outlining hundreds of thousands of dollars in cuts to departments in one or two sentences.
Allen said that even if illegal budget transfers have not occurred, state law was clear that all departments must be directed by directors, interim directors or deputy directors. He urged Melton to comply with state law.
"The solution is very simple," Allen said. "Have either a director, an interim director or a deputy director sign off on every issue or order that comes through the department. That's not our opinion. That's the law. There no law that our attorneys can find that allows a CAO to sign off on every issue that happens within the department," Allen said, adding that the council would "start paying (Melvin and Chandler) next week" if the mayor would "just be forthcoming with straightforward solutions as provided for by law."
The council majority also explained why they voted for a resolution expressing no confidence in O'Reilly-Evans.
"We were getting advice from our attorneys that we should not approve the payroll docket because it may not be legal, but we were getting advice from the city's legal department pooh-poohing that," Allen said, explaining that O'Reilly-Evans was giving legal advice to the council that plainly contradicted state law. "I was told that I could vote on the school board issue, and I certainly can not vote on the school board issue. The school board votes on my contracts, and I'm told that I can vote on a school board issue, subject to a lawsuit?"
Allen recused himself from a council vote on the nomination of a JPS board nominee who could prove to be a crucial swing vote in awarding management of a $150 million bond. Last month, City Council members and JPS employees accused Melton's Chief of Staff Marcus Ward of threatening to pull School Board Vice President Jonathan Larkin's name for re-nomination if Larkin did not vote for Melton's preferred contractor. Larkin voted for a competing company, and Melton pulled his nomination. Ward denies the allegation.
Barrett-Simon accused O'Reilly-Evans of serving Melton rather than the city, as her position demands.
"My fears were confirmed this past week when the city attorney said, 'I work at the will and pleasure of the (mayor).' As a council member, my question is: Why is there a confirmation process that involves the council ... if she serves only at the will and pleasure of the mayor?" Barrett-Simon asked.
During questions from the press, Barrett-Simon and McLemore said they stood by their call for the mayor's resignation. Barrett-Simon called for "an end to the chaos, and to get on to city business."
Allen said the breakdown in city government could not continue. "Communication and respect is a two-way street. That's all we want: honest communication," Allen said.
Carolyn Redd, who is Melton's sister-in-law and one of four assistant CAOs making between $70,000 and $80,000 annually, asked Allen why the council could not address their concerns to Melton in private. Redd, who explained later that her duties as an assistant CAO included "marketing and public relations," does not report for any publication, and she was the only person to ask questions who was not a member of the press.
Allen explained that after months of discussion with Melton, he no longer felt that the mayor could be taken at his word.
"The day before (Melton) fired (former Parks and Recreation Director) Ramie Ford, he assured me Ramie was going to be re-hired," Allen said. "He assured me on four separate occasions that he would address the Todd Chandler situation, that he would see there was a placement made as long as that was the will of the council, and he refuses to have the hearing. … I had (Melton) on the radio the other day, and he told me on the radio that he was going to bring Larkin up for school board re-appointment. Meanwhile, the day before, he sent a memo saying he wanted (Larkin) to be pulled. So which part (of the mayor's private conversations) do I believe, and which part do I not believe?
Redd asked Allen if he had never said anything that turned out to be false, but Allen dismissed the question with a wave of his hand.
McLemore said that Melton seemed not to understand that there are legal and constitutional limits to his power.
"The city of Jackson did not elect a king. We didn't elect a czar. We didn't elect a pope. We elected a mayor and seven members of the city council, and it's a two way street. Right now, we're not witnessing the separation of powers, and we're not witnessing cooperation, because the mayor has decided that I'm going to do it my way or no way," McLemore said.
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